She says earthquakes can be triggered when waste water, used in the hydraulic process is disposed of by injecting the water deep into the Earth.

The process, she believes, touched off a 5.6 magnitude quake in Oklahoma, a 5.0 in Colorado, 1 4.8 in Wyoming and a 4.0 in January of last year.

“It’s very clear cut that disposing of waste fluids at depth can and does set off earthquakes,” Jones said.

Paige asks Jones what the process of fracking would mean to California. Simple, says Jones. “Our hypothesis would be that we could set off earthquakes.”

She also believes that the quakes set off in California would be more severe — our faults are larger and deeper.

Oil industry spokesperson Dave Quast says waste water from fracking has been done in California — for decades — with no known quakes triggered by the process.

He believes it is because less water has to be used here to produce oil. “In the east in a hydraulic fracturing operation there might be five million or more gallons of water used. Here in California, it might be a small percentage of that. It might be closer to 115 or 120,000 gallons of water,” Quast said.